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Lamborghini restores ultra-rare one-off Miura SVR

This is the one-of-one Lamborghini Miura SVR. It's a racing development of the already rare Miura SVJ, and its 19-month factory restoration has just been completed. It could very well be the most desirable Miura ever built. The SVR is one of 763 Lamborghini Miuras built by the factory between 1966 and 1972. In addition to "regular" Miuras, there was a limited-number run of "Jota" specification cars, or SVJs, developed by factory test driver Bob Wallace. The specific car here was originally a green Miura S with the chassis number #3781, built in 1968 and displayed at the Turin Motor Show. In 1974, it was acquired by a German customer, who brought it back to the factory to be reborn for the first time. During that 18-month rebuild, it was converted into special, created-for-the-occasion SVR spec, a notch above the vaunted 440-horsepower SVJ cars. In 1978, #3781 was sold to Japan, where it became an actual hero car, making it into manga comics and serving as a basis for toymaker Kyosho's SVR model car line. It certainly takes something for a single car to be so breathtaking that it creates its own niche and following. After 40 years, the SVR was deemed to need restoration, and it arrived to the factory already in pieces. It wasn't a rotten shell, as it was sold as a complete car in Japan in 2015; however, the gold leather interior seen in this Petrolicious post didn't make it to 2018. The head of Lamborghini's factory restoration division Polo Storico, Paolo Gabrielli, says that the factory wasn't really able to use the same approach as Polo Storico restorations usually require. "The original production sheet wasn't of much help, as we relied mostly on the specifications from the 1974 modifications," said Gabrielli. The only ways where the restored SVR differs from the original 1974 build is that it now has 4-point safety belts, better racing seats and a removable roll bar, as the car sees race track use and these modifications were requested by the car's current owner for safety's sake. Now that it's finally finished, #3781 was shown at the Nakayama Circuit in Japan. Related Video:

Lamborghini Urus ST-X due out in 2020, hybrid with boost mode still on the way

LAS VEGAS — Lamborghini will expand the Urus range by taking it in two completely different directions. The SUV will go racing by the end of 2020, and it will gain a gasoline-electric hybrid powertrain. Autoblog sat down with Maurizio Reggiani, the head of the Italian firm's research and development department, at CES to get the latest on both projects. An updated variant of the track-bound Urus ST-X concept (pictured) made its debut in 2019. Development work is ongoing in the automaker's Squadra Corsa department, Reggiani told us, and the model is scheduled to appear during the 2020 Lamborghini Super Trofeo World Final taking place in Misano, Italy, Oct. 31 to Nov. 1. "There will be a demo race where we'll present the format," Reggiani said. Meanwhile, another team is busily developing the plug-in hybrid variant of the Urus. It's a relatively straightforward process, because the model's platform was designed with electrification in mind, and the other models built on it (including the Porsche Cayenne and the Bentley Bentayga) are already available with hybrid power. The trick is figuring out what Lamborghini can bring to the table to differentiate itself from its sister brands. "The most important part will be to define in what way a Lamborghini must use this electric energy, and in what way we can be different from the other users of this platform," Reggiani said. While he stopped short of revealing what his team has decided, and he didn't share the model's unveiling date, he told us the driving mode selected will have a big effect on how the plug-in hybrid system dispenses electricity.  "We have seven different driving modes in the Urus, and what will be important is that every driving mode use electric power in a different way." Pressed for details, he singled out a "boost-oriented mode" created for maximum performance and an efficiency-focused mode that puts fuel economy front and center. Lamborghini is also taking its supercars into hybrid territory. We already know the Aventador's successor will offer a gasoline-electric powertrain, but the system won't be related to the one fitted to the Urus. Making a hybrid supercar is far more challenging than putting the system in an SUV, due to weight and packaging constraints, and going entirely electric would be even more difficult. Reggiani asserts the technology isn't ready yet. "When you drive a super-sport car, you want to have the freedom to do what you want.

Lamborghini says it could build the Sterrato rally car at a profit

Automobile spent an hour working out the Lamborghini Huracan Sterrato concept at the Volkswagen Group's Nardo test track. Naturally, the question of a production version came up. Maurizio Reggiani, Lamborghini's chief technical officer, told the magazine a customer version would be possible, only because "the provisional business case suggests that we can build this car at a profit." And the secret to making money on the car would be 3D printing. The composition of the Sterrato is 96 percent bone-stock Huracan EVO. Same naturally aspirated 5.2-liter V10 with 631 horsepower and 442 pound-feet of torque, same all-wheel drive, four-wheel steering and torque vectoring, same 20-inch wheels. The exterior departures come in the handling software retuned for dirt and loose surfaces, a 1.85-inch lift, fender flares and a one-inch wider track, off-road tires backed by mud guards, aluminum plates front and rear. and those auxiliary LED lights. The cabin gets a titanium roll cage and five-point racing harnesses. Perhaps save for the software, the edits are cosmetic add-ons, and Reggiani said Lamborghini can fabricate "all restyled or new body panels, claddings, ducts, and splitters on 3D printers." The carmaker developed a kind of plastic especially for the cause, "a lightweight synthetic material which is in its final shape bolted or screwed onto the finished body." The Automobile piece said Lamborghini would need to assess the material's durability, and perhaps sort out a different solution for the "armadillo rear-window cover that messes up what view there is." There would also be the "jackhammer noise level" to attend to. Otherwise, the mag's assessment is that the Sterrato is "even more playful than its brethren, and the mere prospect of enjoying a long cold winter in a hard-core sports car is bound to make quite a few Lambophiles reach for their checkbooks." The case for the car is presented as the Sterrato forming one in a line of special edition Huracans that will maintain interest in the model until the replacement arrives in 2023 or 2024. Next year we'd get the hardcore Huracan STO, or Super Trofeo Omologato. A potential Sterrato could show in 2021, limited to between 500 and 1,000 units, sold for about $271,000 each. That's about $9,000 more than the 2020 Huracan EVO AWD coupe. A Huracan hybrid would be follow in 2022, a Huracan Superveloce providing the model's backstop before the successor.